Elephant Seal
| status = Lower Risk | diet = | performer = No }} The Elephant Seal is a large pinniped native to Arctic waters. It is available for adoption in Zoo Tycoon. Zoopedia Info The northern elephant seal, or Mirounga angustirostris, is the second largest seal in the world (the southern elephant seal is the largest). An adult male of the species can grow over 13 feet long and weigh as much as 5,000 pounds. The elephant seal gets their name from the large nose of the mature male members of this species, which normally resembles the trunk of an elephant. When these animals get angry, however, they can inflate their noses to warn off their rivals in dominance fights. Adult elephant seals have a dark silvery-brown coat, which they molt each year, shedding both their layer of fur and their layer of skin beneath. Seal pups have a shiny black coat that is replaced by the adult coloration after their first molt. Although their flopping movement on land appears ungainly, these animals are amazingly graceful underwater. They can hold their breath for at least 20 minutes and in rare cases for up to an hour, and they can dive deeper than most marine animals. Males have been known to dive as deep as 4,000 feet. Typically, they rest at the surface for three to five minutes between dives to breathe. These depth-loving animals can even sleep underwater, sometimes hundreds of meters deep. Found in temperate waters off the west coast of the United States and southern Canada, the northern elephant seal travels in small groups called rafts. When these rafts join together on land, they are referred to as colonies. Very large groups of female seals gather to birth their pups in areas known as rookeries. These rookeries are usually located on warm beaches in California and Mexico, while the rest of the year is spent in the feeding grounds along the northern coast of the United States and Canada. Male seals arrive first at these rookeries, seeking to establish dominance. Up to 50 females eventually join them. Only one male can be the alpha male of a rookery at any one time, although the ranks may change throughout the breeding season. When the alpha male feels threatened, he may start out using vocal threats as warnings, but these can quickly degenerate into violent and bloody battles. In these fights, the males use long canine teeth as weapons and fight both on land and in the water. It isn’t just the adult males that exhibit dominance behavior--dominant females in the harem fight for the best places to give birth and raise their pups. Even male pups stage mock battles, practicing for adulthood. Elephant seals eat a variety of foods, many of them found at great depths. They have been known to eat cephalopods (like squid and octopi), fish, eels, skates, rays, and red crabs, among other foods. During their deepest dives they can hunt pelagic or bottom-dwelling creatures such as ratfish, swell sharks, spiny dogfish, and rockfish. When females leave the water to give birth and nourish their pups they can go without food and water for long periods of time, living off their fat alone. Because of the depths at which they feed, elephant seals tend to feed alone or in small groups. Northern elephant seals may fall prey to orcas or sharks, but their greatest predator is man. Humans have hunted these seals to the edge of extinction. Prized for their blubber that could be made into lamp oil, human hunting brought the total number of northern elephant seals on the planet below 100 in the late 1800s. Today, conservation programs have brought those numbers back to about 150,000--proof that man can sometimes undo the damage of the past. Category:Mammals Category:Aquatic animals Category:Marine Mania animals Category:Animals Category:Pinnipeds Category:North American animals Category:American Animals